


Death to the Declarant

by Milktrician



Series: Milk's TMA OCs [2]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Blood and Violence, Body Horror, Character Death, Dreams, Gen, Horror, Hospitals, Kidnapping, Medical Malpractice, Murder, Original Character(s), Original Statement (The Magnus Archives), The Usher Foundation (The Magnus Archives)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:08:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27581158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milktrician/pseuds/Milktrician
Summary: Statement of Ryan Gorde, regarding a series of encounters with a strange doctor. Original statement given 15th of April, 2016.Statement of Alan, regarding a series of dreams he’s had over the last few years. Recorded direct from subject.Audio recordings by Fredrick Callaghan, Assistant Researcher of the Usher Foundation, Washington DC.AKA: Local assistant researcher gets in over his head trying to figure out his puzzling dreams.
Series: Milk's TMA OCs [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2047985
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	1. Last Words

**Author's Note:**

> This includes some original characters me and my friend have made. Enjoy!
> 
> CW: Hospitals, Nightmares, Kidnapping, Murder, Body Horror

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Statement of Ryan Gorde, regarding a series of encounters with a strange doctor. Original statement given 15th of April, 2016.

[INT. USHER FOUNDATION, RESEARCH DEPARTMENT, RAJ NARAYAN'S OFFICE]

[CLICK]

**FREDRICK**

Statement of Ryan Gorde, regarding a series of encounters with a strange doctor. Original statement given 15th of April, 2016. Audio recording by Fredrick Callaghan, Assistant Researcher of the Usher Foundation, Washington DC, made June 14th 2017.

Statement begins.

**FREDRICK (STATEMENT)**

People followed me here, I’m sure of it. I first spotted them outside my apartment three days ago and they’re always there in the corner of my vision, whether it’s a work or I’m visiting family, they’re always there. I last saw them when I stopped in Richmond at some gas station, two people in some motorcycle with a sidecar and a metallic finish. I can’t tell what they look like under the helmets but no matter how hard I try I can’t get them off my tail. But this isn’t even related to what I wanted to make a statement about to your stupid foundation I just can’t get this off my mind.

I know you guys have a policy about “No out-of-body experiences, visions, hallucinations or dreams” but I need this...this thing to be known. I don’t remember my dreams often, it usually comes up blank or it’s really hazy in my mind. But this one dream has been haunting me for the past week, and it’s always the same one. It’s in a hospital room and I’m in one of the beds. I wake up and the pain I feel is so real, the wounds and burns are all over me and they’re recent as well. I start screaming, and the other people in the dream start screaming as well. It’s deafening but we all can’t stop until what feels like half an hour later when our throats are hoarse or pooling with blood. I realize that I’m dying and I fight so hard to live and to stay awake because who wouldn’t? Then I wake up sweating in my bed with my dog besides me, and I’m glad she’s there every time because I get to realize it’s all a dream.

The dream changed four days ago. Or it’s always been like this, I couldn’t tell. I wake up once more and I scream through my agony but I could tell through my hazy thoughts that I’m the only one left in the room. I don’t remember how many people were first there but there isn’t anyone else there but me. Once I realized that I stopped crying through my pain I felt like I had some control of this dream all of a sudden. I couldn’t move my body but I could turn my head.

And that’s when the doctor appeared in my vision.

As I’m struggling to maintain consciousness this man in scrubs and a white coat came to my bedside. At first I was relieved. Finally a doctor! Someone was there to help me, perhaps end this dream all together. Maybe I was finally lucid dreaming and I thought of a doctor here to save me. But the expression on his face dissuaded me. It was tired, almost bored and he carried what looked to be a packet of papers in his hands. And his eyes, god his eyes. I know grey eyes exist, but his didn’t look right. I couldn’t tell what were wrong with them but I think the bright lights of the room just didn’t hit them correctly.

He asked, “You’re Ryan Gorde, correct?” in this low gravelly voice, and I nodded and braced through the sharp agony I was going through. And he then said, “I’m going to give you a choice. I can stop your pain now, or I can give you a week left to live. There is nothing I can do to help you further.” Of course I was in shock, what the hell did that mean? This was just a dream and I needed to wake up. But I couldn’t. And he just kept staring at me, waiting for my answer.

So I said I wanted the week. That was the logical answer right? I could use the time to finalize everything, I just had to power through my suffering in this dream, and with that answer the doctor gave a nod. And that’s when I woke up to my dog. I first thought that there was no way that this was real, but the thought that I had a week to live was burned into my head. So I spent the rest of that day telling everyone I knew I loved them. That night when I fell asleep it was the same dream again, I stopped screaming and became aware of what was happening again. So I turned my head while I fought through the pain and saw the doctor again.

He stood above me and _smiled_ and he said, “I’m glad you’ve realized that wasn’t going to do you any good anymore. It gets too tiring when someone tries to incite sympathy.” It took no time before I cried out, “Why are you doing this?” and the doctor’s expression shifted again looking almost exhausted,

“You just can’t be saved from death, I’m afraid,” he stated, “Be glad it’ll be swifter than the fate you’re supposed to have.”

And he just walked away, and I was alone in that bed for what felt like hours. I cried mostly, I didn’t know how else to process this situation. The doctor kept watching me, just sitting across the room at a desk behind a chair. He’s either reading something or looking at me with those dead eyes, tired expression never changing. This has been going on for the past few days. I’ve taken out some life insurance in the meantime and wrote a will as well.

It’s been four days since I agreed that I had a week to live, and three days since I’ve noticed those two following me here. I don’t know if I’m going to die soon and I don’t know if this statement is going to do anything, but I just needed to tell someone, anyone about this.

I don’t want to die, but I don’t know how to save myself either.

**FREDRICK**

Statement ends.

Sorry I’m doing this in your office Raj, it’s your lunch break and this is the only private place I can record this. I’ve only pulled this out of our archives because I remembered this statement while it was going through our department back in 2016. Mr. Gorde after making this statement was reported missing 3 days later. In the same three days his place of work, a metal manufacturing plant, had exploded killing most of his co-workers. Mr. Gorde hasn’t been found since he went missing in April 2016. He had been declared dead when a rotting severed hand had been delivered to his doorstep and was discovered by his sister only 3 months later.

Ok, I should get to the reason I’m recording this.

I’ve been having the same dream as Mr. Gorde for the past 3 days, and the observations line up. I wake up in a hospital room and there’s this immense pain in my back and my head is killing me. I realize as the blood trickles down my head that I’m dying, but I cannot die. I scream and cry out just as Mr. Gorde did but it does nothing, the other patients in the room do the same. The doctor is there too, checking on each patient over the days I dream of this hospital room. There are four people left in the hospital room including me. 

This statement reveals that the doctor can be talked to, possibly communicated with. I don’t know if the doctor is human, or a monster giving it’s victims a false sense of reassurance but I want to try anyway.

There’s also the two in the motorcycle following Mr. Gorde across state lines, I don’t know if this is connected to the dreams or it’s a separate matter entirely but it’s another thing I should look for if I am offered the ultimatum. I…

[PAUSE]

I don’t know why I’m even making this recording. I suppose it gives me comfort, another warning to an unsuspecting dreamer. I’ll be spending my time cataloging my experiences of my last few days on this earth, tonight and in the next few days I’ll try and find out more about this dream and this doctor. Raj if you’re listening to this and wondering why I dumped all my work on everyone else, I’m sorry. And if anyone else finds this post my death, I hope my findings help you with...with ending this nightmare.

End recording.

[CLICK]

[INT. FREDRICK’S APARTMENT]

[CLICK]

**FREDRICK**

Update, June 16th 2017.

I finally met with the doctor, it’s hard to talk with all the pain but I managed to get what I wanted to say. I told him that I was from the Usher Foundation and I wanted to talk before I died. He was surprised actually, and asked if I was Fredrick Callaghan. I confirmed my identity and heard him say, “Well that will make it easier to…” and he trailed off. But he agreed to a meeting as long as his identity would be made secret.

[A REV OF A MOTORCYCLE IS FAINTLY HEARD FROM OUTSIDE]

This is going to be an idiotic decision, but I’m dying anyways. There’s nothing to lose on my end.

I don’t know how the meeting is going to be— 

[A SERIES OF KNOCKS ERUPT ON THE NEARBY DOOR OF FREDRICK’S APARTMENT]

[FREDRICK WALKS TOWARDS THE DOOR AND UNDOS THE LOCK]

[THE DOOR SLAMS OPEN OVERLAPPED WITH A SOUND OF ALARM FROM FREDRICK]

Who—

**KITTY**

Night night!

[SOMETHING STABS INTO FREDRICK CAUSING HIM TO SHRIEK]

[HEAVY BREATHING BEFORE THE SOUND OF A BODY FALLS TO THE FLOOR, PRESUMABLY FREDRICK]

[KITTY SIGHS]

Can’t believe he agreed to meet with this nerd.

[FABRIC RUSTLING, KITTY GRUNTS AS THE BODY TUMBLES AROUND]

Is...is that a freaking tape recorder? Oh my god it is.

[CLICK]


	2. Pulled at the Seams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Statement of Alan, regarding a series of dreams he’s had over the last few years. Recorded direct from subject, June 2017

[INT. UNKNOWN LOCATION]

[CLICK]

**ALAN**

Is that tape recorder supposed to be there?

**KITTY**

I’ve been trying to get rid of them this entire trip, they keep popping in everywhere after I destroyed the first one.

**ALAN**

He’s not...I checked, he’s not one of “us” right?

**KITTY**

He shouldn’t be, but everyone under that foundation is pretty much an agent of the Eye anyways. 

[SLOW BREATHING FROM FREDRICK BECOMES RAPID AS HE WAKES UP]

**FREDRICK**

Wh—Where...oh god it’s you.

**ALAN**

Oh god it is. Don’t bother struggling with the restraints.

**FREDRICK**

Is this how it works? You kidnap your victims and then you kill them?

**ALAN**

Er, not directly actually. But you said you wanted to talk? Perhaps a statement for your foundation?

**KITTY**

Seriously? We made this road trip just so you could _make a statement?_

**ALAN**

I thought it would be fun! Plus we’re on vacation and he was going to die anyways,

**FREDRICK**

I—I’m still here you know? Er, wha-what did you want to give a statement about?

**ALAN**

How about…a series of dreams I’ve had over the last few years.

**FREDRICK**

Right. S-Statement of...could I get a name?

**ALAN**

Alan will do.

**FREDRICK**

Statement of Alan, regarding... a series of dreams he’s had over the last few years. Recorded direct from subject, June...June 2017. Statement begins.

**ALAN (STATEMENT)**

I’ll let you know that I’m an actual doctor, I didn’t go and study for over a decade just to kill people while in massive debt. But Death doesn’t care who you are when you die, but perhaps it picked me to incite a certain type of fear in people. I can’t tell with eldritch fear gods to be honest, and I don’t bother with understanding it either. Accepting the role I’ve landed in is how I’ve survived to this point and if anyone else manages to find this tape after we dispose of it, this isn’t exactly a justification for my actions either.

I started dreaming of that hospital room maybe...three or four years ago? I didn’t know why, I first thought it was because of my job actually. You see I work at a hospital in a pretty large city, my long shifts are not the most enjoyable aspect of my job and I used to get home exhausted and almost miserable. Jumping into bed and my succulents were my only solaces to save me from quitting really. So when I started dreaming of a hospital room where I was only one to save the set of dying patients in front of me I sprang into action once more on impulse and tried to help as much as I could.

This was the worst decision I could have made.

I managed to stabilize three of the six patients in that room before I woke up in a cold sweat. But I disregarded the strange dream as I prepared for the day ahead. During my shift that night I spotted a grizzly sight in the corner of my vision. I walked over through the crowd made of EMS and my fellow co-workers only to see one of the patients that I stabilized in my dream. You see in my dream there was limited equipment I could find in the drawers and cabinets, no anesthetic I could administer but there were some bandages and gauze I could use to stop bleeding. The sutures that were supplied however, were this bright red. I used them anyway because I couldn’t find any other ones.

But when I saw this...this body. This wasn’t my work. The stitches in them, that wasn’t what I had done last night. But the red sutures in them said otherwise, they looked so sloppy instead of the neat rows I had made in the dream. They almost tangled in and out making their own wounds blending in with the blood coming out of them. None of the injuries I saw in my dream were there either, and well, in my limited mindset at the time...

I couldn’t accept that I had killed that person.

That night I dreamed of the same room with the last three patients, of course I tried to save them too.

After that I stopped dreaming of that room only to see the spoils of my work. Over the next two months I saw five more bodies with the same red stitches and cuts I had made trying to save them. I connected this to my dream of course, but the conclusion I came to was clouded in limited judgement. Two more months later and fuelled to get my work done _correctly,_ I stared at the next set of six patients with a new drive to save them.

I killed eighteen more people with the same outcome _every single time_.

You know what was funny? After my last set of victims there was a news report I watched after getting home from a shift of this serial killer across several states killing their victims by stitching them up with red thread. And that’s when I finally got my head out of the hole I carved and truly realized what I was doing. I don’t remember much of the mental breakdown I had that night other than the tears and alcohol.

The next week there were another 6 people, and I did nothing. I couldn’t handle it anymore, I crawled into a ball and covered my ears and tried to stop thinking. If my sleep wasn’t already shit I listened to everyone’s screams and cries every night, only to wake up to another shift of the same thing. That was my life for the next few days before my stress fuelled outburst silenced most of them. I never screamed so hard in my life, but I wanted them to shut up, to be left with my thoughts to try and figure out something, _anything_ to stop this.

There were medical charts next to the beds, only their names and their intended methods of death were on them. So when I woke up I wrote up all I could remember and took an extended vacation from my place of work.

After finding the first person in a car wreck and them subsequently disappearing from my dream I had a feeling that I was doing something correctly. I suppose the End caught onto what I was doing. Because after that I started to see the red sutures in real life, leading me to each of my victims and they tangled around them as I watched their agonizing and slow deaths. I put a few out of their misery myself actually.

After that I had a peaceful night of rest for once, and woke up refreshed.

My methods have changed over the years of course, but it’s simply just been a refinement of my original solution. It’s not something to be proud of.

**ALAN**

Hm, that felt nice actually. Good to let it all out for once.

**FREDRICK**

How did you meet...er, them?

**ALAN**

Who, Kitty? 

[A SMALL PAUSE BEFORE A SCOFF COMES FROM HIM]

Oh it looks like you’re not going to get that statement out of me. I suppose it’s time, Kitty you can call Selena in now.

[KITTY LETS OUT A SMALL CHUCKLE]

**FREDRICK**

What do you mean— ?

[THE DOOR BURSTS OPEN WITH A LOUD SLAM]

**SELENA**

**YOU.**

**FREDRICK**

I don’t understand— OH GOD— 

[THE CHAIR SCREECHES ACROSS THE FLOOR AND IS THROWN TO THE GROUND AS THE SQUELCHES OF A KNIFE PIERCING INTO FREDRICK’S FLESH RAPIDLY ARE HEARD]

**FREDRICK**

AAAH! AAAAH!

[SELENA IS GROWLING AS FREDRICK’S CRIES SLOWLY FADE AS HE DIES]

[BLOOD IS DRIPPING ONTO THE FLOOR AS SELENA HEAVILY BREATHES IN THE SILENCE THAT FOLLOWS]

**ALAN**

That’s the last one.

**KITTY**

Glad to know you’re getting some actual sleep for once. Selena you good?

**SELENA**

[THROUGH HEAVY BREATHS]

I’m...I’m satiated.

**ALAN**

I suppose all we have to do is clean up and dispose of the tape.

**SELENA**

Alan?

**ALAN**

Mhm?

**SELENA**

Did you really go through all that?

**ALAN**

Quite. 2014 was not a good year for me unfortunately.

**KITTY**

At least it led to you meeting us I suppose.

**SELENA**

Maybe it really is a red string of fate, you know like in those myths? Being tied to your soulmate, something with pinkies...don’t really remember it too well but you get the idea right?

**ALAN**

Some soulmates they must be then if they’re all dead bodies.

**SELENA**

C’mon you know who I was really talking about!

[ALAN CHUCKLES]

**ALAN**

Course I do.

[FABRIC RUSTLES]

**KITTY**

The End is still real fucking shitty to you though.

**ALAN**

It’s...It’s something I’ve grown to accept. Now let’s get all that blood off so you can get a hug too Selena.

Ah crap the tape is still rolling.

[CLICK]

* * *

[INT. USHER FOUNDATION, RESEARCH DEPARTMENT, RAJ NARAYAN'S OFFICE]

[CLICK]

**RAJ**

I...I don’t know what to say.

[PAUSE]

Fredrick disappeared several days ago, left a letter explaining that everything would be on a tape in his desk or at his home. When I went there with Olivia we found the door unlocked with no one inside. Afterwards we filed a missings persons report and left it be.

I found these two tapes on my desk today. I don’t know how or…

[ANOTHER PAUSE, LOST IN THOUGHT]

Fuck. It's never simple with this job, isn’t it.

[HE TAKES IN A SLOW BREATH]

Fear gods, or eldritch beings. Whatever it is, that sick doctor mentioned them. Fredrick was an “agent of the Eye” or well, every one under the Foundation is. The Eye, the End...I presume there’s more if these are gods of fear.

The End, must be the fear of death, dying in general I suppose. The Eye...my first thought would be eyes but it can’t be that simple if it’s tied to the Foundation. Finding out information perhaps? But that isn’t a fear, and stretching it out probably wouldn’t do me good either.

I...I want to find justice for Fredrick. But they must be long gone by now and I don’t have any way to identify any of the people in this tape. There’s no way to pinpoint a certain doctor with such a common name as Alan. As for the other two...Kitty sounds like a nickname and Selena is just as common as Alan.

There’s...there’s almost nothing I can do, and to be honest. I don’t even know if I can do anything at this point.

[HE PAUSES BEFORE RISING OUT OF HIS CHAIR]

I should show these to Olivia.

[CLICK]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OCs Included in these statements:
> 
> Usher Foundation:  
> Raj Narayan (Head Researcher)  
> Fredrick Callaghan (Assistant Researcher)  
> Olivia Ivanović (Researcher)
> 
> Avatars:  
> Alan Valerio (Avatar of the End)  
> Katherine "Kitty" Trevino (Avatar of the Hunt)  
> Selena Mcalister (Avatar of the Slaughter)
> 
> Kitty and Selena are OCs made with my friend birdhand! It was after we talked about a hypothetical End, Hunt, and Slaughter avatar solidarity. That idea then turned into an enemies to lovers fear polycule. I might write more about this trio along with the research team at the Usher Foundation if I think of anything interesting. Hope you enjoyed this!
> 
> I have a picture of Alan I tried to include but alas Ao3 didn't show it, you can find it [here](https://imgur.com/jNXEUOT) if this link works.  
> I normally dont publish fic, I do draw art at [my tumblr here](https://milktrician.tumblr.com/) though.


End file.
